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Personal Explanation, 


S V E E C H 

xsiv WASH\' 4Gi ^ jr 

OF ^ 

HON. WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW, 

M m, ■-> 

OF TENNESSEE, 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FEBRUARY 15, 1872. 


The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from 
Tennessee [Mr. Browni.ow] now has the con¬ 
sent of the Senate to make a personal explana¬ 
tion in writing, and the Secretary will read it. 

The Secretary proceeded to read the speech 
of Mr. Browni.ow, as follows: 

Mr. President, I speak to a question of 
privilege, and ask permission of the Senate 
to reply to some aspersions on my character 
made by a member of the House of Represent¬ 
atives on the 221 ultimo, which appear in the 
Daily Globe of the 2od. The Secretary will 
find tneni on page 7 of that issue under the 
name of “ Mr. Beck.” 

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Chair must 
ask the Secretary to stop at this point. The 
rule in Jefferson’s Manual, quoted from Grey 
and Hatsell, reads: 

“It is a breach of order in debate to notice what 
has been said on thesamesubject in the other House, 
or the particular votes or majorities on it there.” 

Also : 

“ Neither House can exercise any authority over 
a member or officer of the other, but should com¬ 
plain to the House of which he is, and leave the 
punishment to them. Where the complaint is of 
wordsdisrespectfully spoken by a memberof another 
House, it is difficult to obtain punishment, because of 
the rules supposed necessary to be observed (as to the 
immediate noting down of words) for the security 
of members. Therefore, it is the duty of the House, 
and more particularly of the Speaker, to interfere 
immediately, and not to permit expressions to go 
unnoticed which may give aground of complaint to 
the other House, and introduce proceedings and 
mutual accusations between the two Houses which 
can hardly be terminated without difficulty and dis¬ 
order.”—3 Hatsell, 51. 

The Chair is compelled, without knowing 
what this refers to, or what has been said in the 
other House, to draw the attention of the Sen¬ 
ate to this point, as it is the duty of the Pre¬ 
siding Otficer, and so stated in the authority 
in the Manual, to arrest proceedings at this 
particular point, because if this is a speech 
replying to words spoken disrespectfully of a 
Senator in the other House, then of course it . 
can be replied to by the member in the other j 
House, giving, as it is said, “ a ground of com- | 
plaint,” and introducing “proceedings and ' 
mutual accusations between the two Housed I 


which can hardly be terminated without diffi¬ 
culty and disorder.” It is, however, for the 
Senate, as the Chair has performed his duty, 
to decide what they please on the subject. 

Mr. CHANDLER. I think it would per¬ 
haps have been very well had that rule been 
enforced in the other House ; but I ask unani¬ 
mous consent for the Senator from Tennessee 
to proceed, inasmuch as the member of the 
House was allowed to proceed. 

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Chair does 
not know what proceedings have transpired 
in the other House in regard to this matter, 
and therefore speaks without knowledge, offi¬ 
cial or unofficial. 

Mr. CHANDLER. I ask unanimous con¬ 
sent— 

Mr. TRUMBULL. I would like to hear 
the sentence read again, that we may know 
what it is. 

The VICE PRESIDENT. It will be again 
reported. 

The Secretary read as follows : 

“I speak to a question of privilege, and ask per¬ 
mission of the Senate to reply to some aspersions on 
my character made by a member of the House of 
Representatives on the 22d ultimo, which appear in 
the Congressional Globe of the 23d. The Secretary 
will find them on page 7 of that issue, under the 
name of ‘ Mr. Beck.’ ” 

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Chair will 
state that of course it is unpleasant to him to 
arrest the remarks of the Senator from Ten¬ 
nessee, as he is unable to deliver those re¬ 
marks himself; but he performs this unpleas¬ 
ant duty as he would in regard to any Senator 
on either side of the Chamber who had risen and 
opened his remarks in the same way, because 
the Manual is imperative on the subject. The 
Senator from Michigan asks unanimous con¬ 
sent that under the circumstances the remarks 
of the Senator from Tennessee may be reported. 

Mr. TRUMBULL. Itis very embarrassing, 
in consequence of the situation of the Senator 
from Tennessee, to say anything in regard to 
this. I do not know what will follow, but it 
apparently is a reply to something that has 
been said in the House of Representatives; and 














2 


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the suggestion that it occurs to me would per¬ 
haps under the circumstances be the proper 
one to make would be, as perhaps the Sen¬ 
ator from Tennessee may not have had his 
attention called to the rule, that he withdraw 
this matter until to-morrow morning and see 
whether there is anything in his remarks that 
is obnoxious to the rule which has been read 
by the Chair, and if there should be, I have 
no doubt the Senator from Tennessee would 
himself modify them so as to make his re¬ 
marks entirely parliamentary and proper to 
be delivered here. I merely make that as a 
suggestion, as it would, perhaps, relieve any 
embarrassment that would otherwise arise. 

Mr. CONKLING. Of course Ido not know 
the undisclosed contents of this paper; but I 
humbly submit to the Senate that there is noth¬ 
ing, so far, in the reading which subjects the 
Senator from Tennessee to the rule. He says 
that he finds in the Globe a certain thing, and 
that it contains aspersions upon him. That is 
a fact. He says he proposes to reply to that. 
Now, it may be that in the subsequent portions 
of his address he invades the privileges of the 
House or of some member of it; but I sub¬ 
mit to the Senate and the Chair that he does 
not, except in a very technical and format way, 
by saying that he finds in the Globe a para¬ 
graph or a statement headed as follows, which 
contains aspersions upon hischaracter. I take 
it that if the person whose name he mentions 
in the House read an article from a newspaper, 
fyr read a letter from any individual reflecting 
upon him, and he finds that in the Globe, he 
does not subject himself to the rule merely by 
locating the place where he finds it, and say¬ 
ing that he proposes to reply to aspersions 
there. I can understand how he may very 
well reply to aspersions without interfering 
with the rule at ali. I do not know how that 
may be. It may be that the rule is interfered 
with. I only now submit to the Chair and to 
the Senate that we have not heard enough to 
say that the Senator, in any sense except a 
very technical one, has violated the rule to 
which the Chair has very properly and so 
kindly called his attention. 

Mr. HAMLIN. In corroboration of what 
the Senator from New York has said, allow 
me to call the attention of the Chair to the 
precise language of the rule, which should 
leave no doubt on the minds of Senators, if 
there were any doubt after the explanation of 
the Senator from New York. 1 take it this 
rule and this law applies where disrespectful 
words are spoken, because it says, “ where 
the complaint is of words disrespectfully 
spoken.’’ 1 take it that it, is proper, and it 
is done every day here, for Senators to act on 
what appears in the Globe as having been said 
by members of the House in a respectful man¬ 
ner, and certainly in the address which the 
Senator from Tennessee has prepared, and the 
reading of which has just been commenced, 
there has been no word yet disclosed showing 
that the Senator means to speak disrespectfully 
of a member of the House. If there should 
be words disrespectful used by the Senator, 


then only, and not until then, would the rule 
apply. 

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator 
from Maine has quoted the words of the rule, 
but the Chair looks at them very differently. 
The remarks of the Senator from Tennessee 
opened by saying that he asked permission 
to reply to some aspersions on his character 
made by a member of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives on the 22d ultimo. The rule applies: 
“Where the complaint is of words disrespect¬ 
fully spoken by a member of another House.” 
An aspersion on the character of the Senator 
from Tennessee is certainly “ words disrespect¬ 
fully spoken” of him, and he makes com¬ 
plaint and desires to address the Senate on 
the subject. 

In regard to the precise point made by the 
Senator from New York, the Chair would state, 
in reply, that there have been no words dis¬ 
closed yet in this address, nor does the Chair 
know what the words are that violate any rule 
of the Senate in regard to parliamentary deco¬ 
rum except possibly reference directly to the 
proceedings of the other House. But if it is 
the pleasure of the Senate that these remarks 
shall he made, of course the Chair will con¬ 
form to that pleasure. 

Mr. CONKLING. By the permission of 
the Chair I should like to say that 1 intended 
to draw the attention of the Chair to the fact 
that the honorable Senator from Tennessee 
does not, I submit, make complaint of these 
words. He refers to the fact that such words 
have been uttered, and he says he proposes to 
reply to them. Perhaps he means to reply in 
a spirit of complaint; perhaps he means to 
reply disrespectfully ; but I think we have a 
right, as the Chair has now suggested, to 
assume that he means to reply, as he has a 
right to reply, until the contrary appears. 

Mr. MORTON. It seems tome that where 
a member of the other House has been per¬ 
mitted by the rules of the House to make 
aspersions on the character of a Senator, the 
Senator ought at least to have unanimous con¬ 
sent to make a reply to such aspersions as 
might be proper in view of the language which 
has been employed, and there are circum¬ 
stances connected with the Senator from 
Tennessee that would make this especially 
proper, and 1 think he should be allowed to 
reply in terms that may be fit, and proper in 
view of the character of the charges that may 
have been made against him. I hope, there¬ 
fore, unanimous consent will be given. 

The VICE PRESIDENT. All the Sen¬ 
ators who have spoken appear to regard that 
the Senator should proceed with his remarks 
until some language is disclosed which will 
require the Chair to interfere. The Secretary, 
then, will resume the reading. 

The Secretary continued the reading of Mr. 
Brown low’s speech, as follows: 

ihe Secretary will find them on page 7 of 
that issue under the name of “ Mr. Beck 

“No, sir; I have not time. When Georgia elected 
a Legislature which was Democratic}, the President, 
through General Terry and his soldiers, ro-rocon- 











3 


V 


struoted that State, and put into the Legislature 
nineteen Republicans who had been defeated, turn¬ 
ing out the duly-elected Democratic members, so as 
to make it a Republican Legislature. The result is 
that her debts and liabilities, as Mr. Angier, tho 
treasurer, shows, were $50,000,000 when Bullock left, 
many millions of which have been stolen, and are j 
forever lost to the people of that State. Those two i 
great States have thus been plundered by men im- i 
posed upon them by Congress and the President, 
against their will, and so it has been in nearly all 
the southern States. Virginia, it is true, escaped, 
as my friend from Indiana [Mr. Voorhkes] says: 
she never fell under Radical rule; and Mississippi 
happened to elect one of her own citizens, which 
partially saved her for a time. In North Carolina i 
Governor Holden was successfully impeached for 
high crimes and misdemeanors; he is now editor of I 
the Government organ at Washington city. Governor j 
Bullock, of Georgia, resigned his position, and tied 
from the State to prevent certain conviction for like 
offenses. Governor Smith, of Alabama, retired in j 
disgrace, proved to have officially plundered his i 
State by the illegal and corrupt issue of $500,000 of I 
her bonds to tho Alabama and Chattanooga Rail- j 
road Company; Scott, of South Carolina, proved J 
by his own partisans to be a public plunderer, who, j 
if he escapes impeachment, must buy his corrupt j 
Legislature; Reed, of Florida, willfully robbing his i 
State by illegally placing millions of her bonds in 
the hands of such a thief as Littlefield is shown ' 
to be: Clayton, of Arkansas, charged by Radical 
officials with all sorts of corruption, and indicted in 
a Radical court by a Radical grand jury for the 
most flagrant offenses; Wnrmoth, of Louisiana, if 
half that is said against him by his own party friends 
be true, is worse than any of them; BROWNLOW, 
while in Tennessee, making a Pandemonium of 
that State; Davis, of Texas, a tyrant and usurper, 
who is denounced by his people, regardless of party, 
as a fiend in human form, whose orders and acts are 
a. disgrace to American civilization—these are the 
men placed by Congress over seven million people 
in nine once free and independent States; men who 
are loathed and execrated by the people whose rights, 
liberty, and honor it was their duty to protect. Re¬ 
tributive justice is on their track ; some have been 
overtaken, the others will be. Hated and despised, 
their only refuge, if they can escape the penitentiary, 
seems to be iu the Senate of the United States.” 

I bog leave to 9tate that some ten days had 
elapsed after the utterance of these remarks 
before they were called to my attention ; and 
as they assailed my official integrity while Gov¬ 
ernor of Tennessee I have delayed my response 
in order to receive from home some facts which 
prove their recklessness and falsity. 

The charges of Mr. Beck are, in general 
terms, that the southern States have “been 
plundered by men imposed upon them by 
Congress and the President against their will,” 
with particular reference to myself as “Brown- 
low, while in Tennessee, making a Pandemo¬ 
nium of that State; ” and in order that I may 
not escape the imputations of a want of integ¬ 
rity, or unmitigated scoundrelism which he 
hurls at the southern governments, he further 
gays: 

“These are the men placed by Congress over 
seven million people in nine once free and independ¬ 
ent {States; men who are loathed and execrated by 
the people whose rights, liberty, and honor it was 
their duty to protect. Retributive justice is on 
their track; some have been overtaken, the others 
will be. Hated and despised, their only refuge, if 
they oan escape the penitentiary, seems to be in the 
Senate of tho United States.” 

As I am one of ihe two Governors alluded 
to, now Senators of the United States, these 
geneial charges apply to me, and I cannot 
permit, them to go unanswered to the country. 

I have had nothing to do with the adminis¬ 
tration of any other State thau the one I have 


the honor to represent in part in the Senate ; 
and shall therefore confine my reply to that 
portion of Mr. Beck’s remarks which asperse 
the government of Tennessee and myself per¬ 
sonally. 

There was a time in the history of my life 
when Mr. Beck would not have dared to put 
this or any other insult upon me, for fear I 
would have taken from his hand the slave- 
whip with which, as overseer on a Kentucky 
plantation, he was accustomed to whip negroes 
for pay, and laid it across his own back. The 
code by which the gentlemen of Kentucky were 
governed in those days, having in it certain 
principles of honor, would not have reached 
low enough down in the social scale to find 
his level ; for when he abandoned the honor¬ 
able pursuit of hostler in a livery stable to ^ 
become a slave-driver he betrayed the posses¬ 
sion of qualities which the gentlemen of old 
Kentucky never ceased to despise. 

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Chair must 
state that he regards this language as language 
which could not be regarded as in order if 
addressed by one Senator to another on the 
floor ; arid therefore, regretting that lie is com 
pelled to do it in performance of duty to him¬ 
self, he reads again from page 232 of the 
Manual, to which he has already drawn the 
attention of the Senate: 

“ Therefore it is the duty of the House, and more 
particularly of the Speaker”— 

Which, of course, means the Presiding 
Officer here— 

“to interfere immediately, and not to permit ex¬ 
pressions to go unnoticed which may give a grouud 
of complaint in the other House, and introduce pro¬ 
ceedings and mutual accusations between tho two 
Houses, which can hardly bo terminated without 
difficulty and disorder.” 

Of course, if these remarks were consented 
to by the Chair, a reply to them would be as 
much in order in the House. It is for the 
Senate to decide. 

Mr. BLAIR. I hope no objection will be 
interposed, but that the Senator will be allowed 
to proceed. 

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator 
from Missouri asks unanimous consent that 
the Secretary shall continue the reading not¬ 
withstanding the point made by the Chair. Is 
there objection? The Chair hears none. 

The Secretary continued the reading of Mr. 
Brownlow’s speech as follows: 

if the overseers of Kentucky whipped the 
negroes under their slave system oflabor, the 
gentlemen of Kentucky, be it said to their 
credit, sometimes whipped the overseers; 
they did not fight with them. Their code of 
honor forbade it. But both of these me hods 
have gone out of date, and in the upheavals 
of the civil war we find men who were once 
overseers aspiring to the seats formerly filled 
by Clay and Crittenden, denouncing the Senate 
as a house of refuge for thieves, and yet can¬ 
vassing their States to secure a seat in it. If 
it be a mere refuge from the penitentiary, why, 

I would like to ask, is Mr. Beck so anxious to 
come to the Senate? Is he affrighted by the 
rapidly closing career of his Democratic com- 


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4 


patriots, Boss Tweed, Peter B. Sweeny, Con¬ 
nolly, and Hall? Does the shadow of Sing 
Sing reach all the way to Kentucky? Does it 
forewarn him of his impending doom, that he 
should strive to find a refuge here, like the 
guilty king of England, who exclaimed : 

“Bythe apostle Paul, shadows to-nijrht 

ltave struck more terror to the soul of Richard, 

Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers ?” 

I am a refugee, and while the short limit 
of my life endures cannot recover from its 
outward signs. These feeble limbs that need 
assistance to bring me to this Chamber; these 
palsied hands that ask tor help to write: my 
whispermg voicethatcaunotspeak my thoughts, 
all bear testimony to the fact—I am a refugee. 

It is a coward’s part to call me one, but yet I 
hold the title as an honor. 

% I first became a refugee on the 5th day of j 
November, 1801, having remained at my home ; 
sn Knoxville defending the cause of my coun- ; 
try against organised treason at the risk of my ! 
life until that day. How I had escaped immo¬ 
lation I do not know, except that it was in the 
mercy of God’s providence which sustained 
me in my efforts to put down a hell-born rebel¬ 
lion. My paper had been suppressed and my 
arrest for treason against the southern con¬ 
federacy determined upon. 

In my last issue of the Knoxville Whig, 
dated October 24, 1861, I addressed my sub¬ 
scribers in the following terms: 

“ I shall in no degree feel humbled by being cast 
into prison whenever it is the will and pleasure of 
this august Government to put me there; hut on the 
contrary, I shall feel proud of my confinement. I 
shall go to jail as John Rodgers went to the stake— 
for my principles. I shall go because I have failed 
to recognize the hand of God in the work of break¬ 
ing up the American Government, and the inaugu- 
rationof the most wicked, cruel, unnatural, and un¬ 
called-for war ever recorded in history. I go because 
I have refused to laud to the skies the acts of tyranny, 
usurpation, and oppression inflicted upon the peo- | 
gde of East Tennessee for their devotion to the Con- j 
stitution and laws of the Government handed down 
to them by their fathers, and the liberties secured to j 
them by a. war of seven long years of gloom, poverty, j 
and trial.” * * * * “Exchanging with 

proud satisfaction the editorial chair and the sweet ! 
endearments of homo for a cell in the prison or the 
lot of ao exile, I have the honor to be, &c., 

WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW, 

Editor of Knoxville Whig.” 

The utterance of words like these made me 
a “ relugee,” and on the 5th of the succeeding 
mouth 1 found a hiding place from the blood¬ 
hounds of rebellion in the smoky mountains 
which separat e North Carolina from Tennessee, 
beyond the preciots of civilization. Amid 
the high summits of this range, and in one of 
their deep gorges where no vehicle had ever 
penetrated, I found a temporary refuge until 
rebel scouts discovered my hiding-place. I 
was then induced by false promises of protec¬ 
tion and being sent through the lines to deliver 
myself up to the rebel authorities of the con¬ 
federacy in Tennessee, but they treacherously 
threw me into prison. I will not detail the 
dreary horrors of that incarceration, in which 
I saw men led from my side to an execution I 
expected daily to share; others dying of fever; 
the agonized cries of wives and children of 
men sent to death for loving their country. 


I, who was second to no man in strength and 
vigor of body and constitution, came out of 
prison sick, and have never recovered from 
the shock my system there received. 

After this I was exiled by the rebel govern¬ 
ment, sent through their lines, and became a 
refugee north of the Ohio, while he who assails 
me did what? 1 had liked to have said he 
doffed his rebel uniform and joined the army 
of traitors to fight against his country; but 
that would be paying an undeserved tribute 
to a courage he never possessed. He obtained 
his commission, he got his uniform and equip¬ 
ments ready, but he never wore them. Like 
FalstafF, he thought “discretion the better part 
of valor,” and skulked. Whipping Union sol¬ 
diers was a different sort of pastime from whip¬ 
ping slaves, as the most courageous overseer 
thought twice before a fighting game in which 
the opposite party held as good a hand as he. 

I returned to iny home with Burnside’s 
army, and when at last the voice of the loyal 
people of Tennessee could be heard through 
the ballot-box, they gave me a “ refuge” in the 
gubernatorial chair of that State. I was not 
put there by Congress and the President. 
After the expiration of my term of service the 
same people reelected me to a second guber¬ 
natorial term by over fifty two thousand ma¬ 
jority, and before the expiration of that term 
the Legislature sent me to this “ refuge.” 

There were some extraordinary expenses, 
but very necessary ones, which the State had 
to incur during my administration, resulting 
from the destruction of State property by the 
rebels. Among the first of my duties was to 
rebuild the penitentiary, a large portion of 
which the Democracy had burnt down in 1864, 
perhaps from a desire to have the leaders of 
their party at large. This was adding to the 
State’s indebtedness, but should not be charged 
to my account. The State lunatic asylum was 
dilapidated, and its splendid grounds and val 
uable farm property of hundreds of acres run 
down. These had to be renovated and a new 
building had to be erected to provide for the 
colored insane, no provision having been 
made for them before. The school fund had 
been appropriated to purposes of treason. 
All over the State rebellion had done its bale¬ 
ful work of destruction. The asylum for the 
deaf aud dumb children of the State had been 
occupied as a hospital, its furniture destroyed 
and property injured, and appropriations for 
its support and repairing had to be made. 
Railroads were worn out, their rolling-stock 
destroyed and run south ; bridges destroyed; 
depots demolished, and 1 was compelled to 
rebuild; aud he who charges that in anything 
I did I was animated by other than a sincere 
desire to serve my State, or that I had an itch¬ 
ing palm, or that one cent of the people’s 
money, other than my limited salary, was 
appropriated to my own uses, L, without qual¬ 
ification, an unmitigated liar. 

The VICE PRESIDENT. The reading 
will be suspended. The morning hour has 
expired, and the resolution of the Senator 
from Massachusetts [Mr. Sumner] is before 



/' 














o 


the Senate, upon which the Senator from Iowa 
[Mr. HarlanJ is entitled to the floor. 

Mr. CHANDLER. I ask that the regular 
order he passed over informally. 

The VICE PRESIDENT. The Senator from 
Michigan asks that it be informally passed over 
until the conclusion of the remarks of the Sen¬ 
ator from Tennessee. The Chair hears no 
objection, and the resolution will be informally 
passed over. The reading of the remarks of 
the Senator from Tennessee will be continued. 

The Secretary continued to read Mr. Brown 
low’s speech, as follows: 

I invite investigation and I challenge proof. 
I saw it stated the other day in a leading paper 
that it is a bad symptom of the times that pub¬ 
lic men, whose integrity is assailed, take no 
notice of the slanders, if they be such, allow¬ 
ing themselves to be classed among the guilty 
whose only refuge is in silence. I am not one 
of that class. 1 do cherish my reputation for 
integrity. Men may say what they please of 
my political views and public policy. If the 
first are unsound, they are at least those of a 
majority of my fellow-countrymen ; and if the 
latter seems harsh to the enemies of the Union 
they will at least admit that it has been con¬ 
sistent. Their tender mercies toward myself 
and the Unionists of East Tennessee were 
hardly the sort of schooling they could expect 
to produce a meek and merciful ruler. If I 
have, to a certain extent, repaid them in 
kind, let them remember Gratiano’s response 
to Shylock: 

“I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.” 

They must, moreover, acquit me of returning 
their savagery in degree; for I neither had them 
whipped nor hung, nor otherwise maltreated 
them as I saw them treat those who agreed with 
me. But there is one thing I permit no man 
to assail without response, and that is my hon¬ 
esty. I know the fallibility of human judg¬ 
ment, and can therefore view with unconcern 
all differences of opinion ; but if I have any 
knowledge of my own acts, and must carry 
that knowledge to the bar of final judgment 
where He who judges will know whether 1 speak 
truly or not, I never soiled my soul with pecu¬ 
lation, nor used the people’s trust for private 
gain. My enemies, and I have plenty of them, 
as my country has, in Tennessee, will tell the 
member from Kentucky that his statement is 
not true. If he reads the Democratic news¬ 
papers of Tennessee he would long since have 
learned that his own party do not believe me 
to have been corrupt in office. The most influ¬ 
ential newspapers of the State which supported 
Seymour and Blair have vindicated me from 
any imputation upon my personal or official 
integrity. Differing widely from me upon the 
policy of my administration, they have never¬ 
theless done me the justice to acquit me of any 
official malfeasance or personal dishonesty. 
It is further gratifying to me to state that 
such has been my treatment at the hands of 
the Democratic press generally in Tennessee 
since the bitterness of local conflict has ceased, 
while many prominent leaders of that party 
Lave paid me a like tribute. I avail myself 


of this opportunity, for 1 may never have an¬ 
other, to thank them for this, and to express 
my grateful acknowledgments for what I be- 
j lieve to be their just appreciation of my char- 
S acter in that respect. 

i Of course my administration in Tennessee 
did not escape without personal motives of 
i self interest being ascribed to me; but as I 
had no reason to shun the broad light of day 
upon all my acts, I invited investigation, and 
had the good fortune to be vindicated by my 
I political antagonists. A Democratic comrnit- 
! tee of the Legislature, which looked into my 
i administration of affairs with the hope of find- 
: ing some delinquency which would give them 
| a triumph over me, reported that they could 
find nothing. I was charged with personal * 
motives in the suit of The State vs. William 
H. Ballew et al ., from which I was vindicated 
by the decision of the supreme court of Ten¬ 
nessee, composed exclusively of my political 
opponents, and the record is there for any to 
peruse who wish. 

At one period, with the view of making 
political capital, my action with regard to the 
issue of State bonds was assailed by a gentle¬ 
man who has since confessed his ignorance of 
the facts, and frankly admitted the errors of 
his statements and the injustice done me. 

Mr. A. J. Fletcher, then secretary of State, 
by no means in harmony with me personally, 
made the following statement in the New York 
Times for the satisfaction of Tennessee bond¬ 
holders, not purposely in my vindication. The 
result, however, will be seen to have been a 
thorough justification of my course in that 
regard: 

Office of Secretary of State, 
Nashville. Tennessee. October 4,1869. 

To the Editor of the Neio York Times: 

Some days since my attention was called to a 
letter from your correspondent at Knoxville, dated 
September 16, 1869, upon the finances of Tennessee, 
with a request that the stat ements therein contained 
be denied or explained. As the letter was anony¬ 
mous, and its statements, as 1 supposed, generally 
known to be unfounded, I did not deem the com¬ 
munication worthy of attention. But as I continue 
to receive letters of inquiry as to the statements 
alluded to, I will, with your permission and through 
your paper, notice the principal allegations of your 
correspondent. 

amount of the state debt. 

The statement that the debt of Tennessee has been 
increased since the war from $16,000,000 to $10,000,000 
is recklessly made, in total ignorance of the facts. 

As the financial report of the comptroller will be 
sent to the Legislature in a few days, it will not be 
necessary here to make exact calculation as to 
amounts, as they will then fully appear. I will, in 
view of the early appearance of that important doc¬ 
ument, use round numbers in this paper. The entire 
State debt at the beginning of the war was about 
eighteen million dollars. The interest which accu¬ 
mulated during the war amounted to over four mil¬ 
lion live hundred thousand dollars, and the debt 
that matured during the war amounted to about 
half a million; making the State debt at the close 
of the war about twenty-three million dollars. Since 
then over a million dollars of that debt has matured 
and been funded by the issuance of new bonds. It 
will be seen that your correspondent considers the 
$5,000,000 that matured during the war and $1,000,000 
since as an increase of the debt. And even upon 
that assumption, his statements are greatly exag¬ 
gerated. The actual amount of the increase of the 
! debt since the war, for all purposes, does not reach 
j $14,000,000. Your correspondent has it $24,000,000 - 
' an error of $10,000,000. 










6 


ALLEGED FRAUD IN SIGNING AND SEALING BONDS. 

Yourcorrespoudentfurthersuys: “ I am informed, 
«u very reliable authority, that there is no record 
in the comptroller’s or treasurer’s office at Nash¬ 
ville to show just how many bonds have been issued 
since Governor Brownlow’s administration com¬ 
menced. Irresponsible men were intrusted by him 
with blank bonds, to which the seal of the State 
was affixed, and no living human being knows the 
number they signed and issued.” 

It is only necessary to say that both the comp¬ 
troller’s books and the books of the Executive, kept 
by thesecretary of State, will show the exact amount, 
date of issuance, numbers and time of maturity, 
with the letters and series of every bond issued 
since the war, as well as the purpose of issuance 
and a reference to the law under which such bond 
was issued. The latter sentence of the foregoing 
quotation is without the slightest foundation in fact. 

Again: “Sworn witnesses deposed, before one of 
the investigating committees of the last Legislature, 
that one of Brownlow’s agents was found some 
time ago in one of the private banks of New York 
signing Tennessee bonds, which were furnished him 
in blank, with the seal of the State affixed. No per¬ 
fect record has been kept by the officer at Nashville 
of the number of bonds issued, and I see no reason 
to doubt but that many were signed and issued 
without any authority.” 

I have before me the original deposition of the 
only witness who spoke of signing the Governor’s 
name in New York. It is so grossly perverted as to 
make the foregoing statement worse than simply 
untrue. On one occasion the Governor’s clerk, who 
signed his name to all papers, went to New York to 
receive a lot of blank bonds from the National Bank 
Note Company, who were the engravers. Not wish¬ 
ing to return to Nashville immediately, and the 
bonds being needed, he signed about two hundred 
with the Governor’s name, without the great seal, 
and sent them by express to the secretary’s office, 
where they were countersigned and sealed, passed, 
to the comptroller for the signing of the coupons, 
and then issued to the railroad company entitled to j 
them. This is all there is of this story. 

REPUDIATION NOT POPULAR. 

It is not true that “ many of their leading men 
are open and avowed repudiators.” It may be true 
that a few persons in Tennessee, misled by such re¬ 
ports as your correspondent publishes, have spoken 
of repudiating any bonds that might appear to be 
illegally issued,but nothing more. I have conversed 
with most of the members of the incoming Legis¬ 
lature, and have yet to hear a single one speak of 
repudiating any bond lawfully issued. 

Preferring to a statement of the new bonds lately 
published from this office, your correspondent says: 

“The bonds embraced in the third class were 
issued in exchange for some bonds which were 
returned as mutilated and defaced. New ones 
were issued in their stead, but I am informed that 
the defaced bonds cannot now be found, and it is 
believed they are also in circulation.” 

If this statement is true, the Governor, secretary 
of State, and comptroller, and all others implicated 
with them, are guilty of felonies of gigantic propor¬ 
tions. Of course no denial from those officers will 
be expected. But for the information of those inter¬ 
ested in Tennessee securities, I will state that a 
book hits been kept in the secretary’s office, in which 
a receipt will appear for every bond issued in 
exchange for each mutilated, defaced, or defective 
bond taken up, showing the numbers, dates, series 
and amount of both, the new bond issued and the 
new bond taken up, and also the receipt of the 
comptroller for the old bond thus retired; in addi¬ 
tion to which, every bond thus retired is now in 
the comptroller’s office, completely canceled with 
the proper instruments. And every coupon which 
has matured since 1861, and which has been paid 
or funded, is also preserved, totally canceled, and 
pasted in a book in such manner as to bo easily 
counted. 

I shall not combat the legal argument of your cor¬ 
respondent in vindication of his position that “a 
State is sovereign, and cannot be sued without her 
consent,” except to state that the reports of the 
Supreme Court of the United States would seem to 
indicate that the like has been done very often, and 
that the ablest lawyers in Tennessee are of opinion 
that our bondholders may be subrogated to the 


i rights of the State in her railroads. The disclosure 
of your correspondent’s name may cast all these 
into the background, in view of which I will not 
enter the lists with him. 

REGULAR RECORD OF ALL BONDS. 

In conclusion, I will take this occasion to say to 
all holders of Tennessee bonds that every new bond 
of the State now in circulation has been sealed^and 
countersigned by me, after being signed by the Gov¬ 
ernor himself, or sorno one known to me to havo 
been authorized to sign his name; that the books 
which record the issuance and retiring of bonds have 
been kept with far more accuracy and fullness since 
the war than they were before; and that, having 
been connected, as secretary of State, with the State 
government since its organization in 1865—being 
now the oldest State officer in office—I venture the 
statement that not a single reason can be given for 
the repudiation of the new bonds that does not 
apply with equal force, if there be any force in such 
reason, to the old bonds. 

THE STATE DEBT CAN BE PAID. 

The resumption of the payment of the interest 
may be delayed for several years—perhaps three 
years—but as yet no well-informed Tennesseean 
thinks of repudiation; and unless further anarchy 
and revolution occurs every dollar of her liabilities 
will be paid. Any able business man, if he could 
be untrammeled, can take charge of the finances 
of Tennessee, and by a judiciousinanagement of the 
State’s lien on her railroads reduce the debt of the 
State in twelve months to $9,000,000, a sum that the 
people of the State would not be conscious of. Half 
of the entire debt rests upon railroad companies, 
who pay their interest without difficulty, and who 
are already considering the project of buying in the 
bonds of the State to an extent sufficient to extin¬ 
guish their entire liabilities to the State. This 
would certainly be sound financial policy <-n their 
part: and as the Louisville and Nashville Railroad 
Company has done so. strong hopes are entertained 
that other companies will follow. 

WHEN INTEREST WILL BE PAID. 

Your correspondent gives the new bondholders 
the comforting assurance that their interest will 
not be paid in ten years. The duration of the sus¬ 
pension of the payment of the interest on the State 
debt will depend upon the action of the Legislature, 
now about to convene. Some of the ablest men in 
the State are members of that bidy, including 
learned lawyers and experienced business men and 
large property holders. Of course no prediction can 
be safely made as to the duration of the suspension, 
but there is no reason why payment should not be 
resumed in two years; and, allowing for differences 
in policy and all short-comings, three years without 
war will certainly bring to the bondholder his semi¬ 
annual interest in cash. There will be no discrim¬ 
ination between the old and the new bonds, either 
as to principal or interest. There is no difference in 
merit or consideration, and the whole cause of their 
being assailed is that those who provided for their 
issuance are hated by many who believe it was 
impossible for anything to be done right while 
Brownlow was Governor. 

Respectfully, A. J. FLETCHER, 

Secretary of State of Tennessee. 

I do not deem it necessary to go further in 
vindicating either ray personal or official in¬ 
tegrity. If it shall ever be the good fortune 
of the member from Kentucky to receive the 
same number of evidences of his State r s re¬ 
gard as l have received from mine, and after 
the discharge of his public functions he can 
show as clean a pair of hands, I trust no 
younger man will be so ungracious as to charge 
him with escaping from the penitentiary. 

His declaration that I am loathed and exe¬ 
crated by the people of my State is as false as 
hell, for it is the solace of my declining days 
that they bring me every day renewed evidences 
of the good will and kindly appreciation of my 
fellow-citizens of Tennessee. The asperities 
of the war are not yet over, and I doubtless 























7 



1 


share in the hatred which unrepentant rebels 
still manifest toward Union men, but I atn 
sustained by a good conscience and unfaltering 
trust in divine goodness, and I can stand that. 

My public acts are already apart of the his 
tory of my State and country, and I submit 
them to the honest judgment of posterity. As 
for my rude assailant, as Daniel Webster once 
said of a contemptible foe— 

'* I leave him; I leave him in the worst of all pos¬ 
sible company ; I leave him with himself.” 


Since the foregoing remarks were delivered, 
Mr. Beck has attempted to vindicate himself 
by risiug^ to a personal explanation in the 
House of Representatives, the substance of 
which, for the most part, was an attack upon 
my administration while Governor ol Tennes¬ 
see. 1 could not expect a man who sympa¬ 
thized with the usurpations of isham G. Har¬ 
ris, the Governor who forced Tennessee into 
rebellion, and justified the military disloca¬ 
tion of Tennessee as a member of the Union 
body against the expressed will of its citizens, 
to approve of my course. Had he done so, 1 
should have doubted its justice. The man 
whose treasonable heart rejoiced in the pros¬ 
pect of a destruction of our great Republic, 
and who countenanced, if he did not applaud, 
the hanging of its friends in East Tennessee, 
and the robbery of the school fund and other 
public moneys to assist' rebellious warfare, is 
not the man whose judgment I care to consult 
or whose support I should value. 

He attempts to assail the validity of my elec¬ 
tion, and falsely assumes it to have resulted 
from military interference. Everybody in 
Tennessee knows that the war left his friends 
in no condition to make a political contest, 
they being prisoners of war on parole, and 
thousands of them still serving in the rebel 
armies when I was first elected Governor; 
and that I was peaceably elected by a large 
majority of the legal voters of Tennessee. 

1 have never yet quarrelled with the result 
of the ballot; let those who, after failing to 
elect their President in 1800, treasonably 
appealed to force, exclaim at my triumph as 
they may. I stood by the Constitution and 
laws then ; they attempted to overthrow both, 
and had a temporary triumph. Is it manly in 
them to keep up an everlasting whine at being 
whipped? 

The Kentucky member assumes to be the 
special champion of the people of the South. 
It appears to make a good deal of difference 
to him which particular people, and his zeal 
to save them from oppression has only mani¬ 
fested itself since the poisoned chalice they 
presented to others has returned to their own 
lips. Had the South obeyed my counsels she 
would not now have needed his sympathy; 
and yet I deny that it is any greater than my 
own. 1 have never chosen to justify her folly 
or palliate her treason, and in opposing both 
tried honestly to save her from her present 
fate. The South owes her distress to traitors, 
and cannot point her finger at me and say I 
did it. As I tried to save her in the begin¬ 


ning, l have tr'ed to restore her sine- Imr fill ; 
but Mr. Beck has not agreed with the wisdom 
of my method in either ease. I'hat only proves 
that the college education he boasts of has not 
developed in him much common sense. 

In his reply to my defense against his unwar¬ 
rantable attack the Kentucky Representative 
avoids the main issue. He says he charged 
that I made a Pandemonium of Tennessee, 
about which I clearly stated I did not care for 
his opinion, and then goes on to justify hie 
remarks in reproducing my militia proclama¬ 
tion and other acts, as Governor of that State, 
until he had worn out the patience of the House 
and everbody inquired what that had to do with 
his so-called personal explanation. 

He does not reproduce, however, the con- 
j temporaneous statement of the rebel general, 
j N. B. Forrest, over his own signature, that he 
i had forty thousand organized Ku Klux in the 
i State, nor the confirmation given to that state- 
I ment by the acts of the Ku lvlux. 

There is nothing in my proclamations and 
the military orders issued in pursuance thereof 
requiring an answer from me; but I am grati- 
i fied to observe on reading them over that I 
adhered all through to my temperance princi¬ 
ples, ordered the general in command to en¬ 
force rigid discipline and to show no quarter 
! to officers or privates who should be found 
guilty of excessive drinking. 

He objects that I called out soldiers to keep 
the peace in Tennessee, when I “had been 
advised by the authorities at Washington that 
sufficient military force to aid the civil gov¬ 
ernment would be furnished by the United 
j States.” That is, that being the chief exec- 
! utive of Tennessee, and bound to enforce its 
laws, I chose to rely upon my own people 
instead of United States soldiers; or, as the 
Democrats usually designate them, “Federal 
bayonets.” That which they claim to be the 
first duty of all State Governors, namely, to 
assert the right of local self-government and 
avoid the centralizing tyranny of “ Federal 
bayonets,” was a heinous crime in me. What 
consistency I But who could expect anything 
better from Congressman Beck? 

He admits himself to be a foreigner by birth, 
and yet in his speech, ostensibly replying to 
ray defense against his gross personal attack, 
he say3 the people of Kentucky “have met him 
with ovations at home such as no carpet-bag¬ 
ger in the South ever has or ever will receive.” 
To say nothing of the shocking grammar of 
this sentence, is the graduate of Transylvania 
University so ignorant, of the history of this 
country as to call me a carpet-bagger? If he 
does not mean me, what right has this sort of 
talk in his personal explanation? 

I have said that he shirks the main issue ; 
and that issue I made very plainly in my reply 
to his first attack. It was his imputation cast 
upon ray integrity against which I defended 
myself, not his opinions of my politics. I 
am one of the two Senators he alluded to 
when he said “ their only refuge from the 
penitentiary appears to be iu the Senate of 
the United States.” 











8 


He must credit the world with excessive 
stupidity if he supposes it did not make the 
application he intended. The following edito¬ 
rial notice in the Washington Sunday Chron¬ 
icle shows how the public viewed his attack 
upon me, and though there are other papers 
that have chosen to express their disapproba¬ 
tion of both, I wish it distinctly understood i 
that I was the attacked party and had the right j 
to reply, which no fair mind could deny me: 

“ Senator Brownlow.— From the objections urged 
by the Democratic press to the style aud substance 
of Governor Brownlow’s defense of himself and his j 
State against the aspersions of Representative Buck ! 
it would appear that, notwithstanding his infirmi¬ 
ties, the Tennessee Senator can still strike home. I 
The manner in which he has retorted to the declara- | 
tions of Mr. Buck, that his ‘ only refuge from the j 
penitentiary appeared to be in the Senate,’ is char- j 
aeteristie, and might have been expected by the j 
Kentucky member or any other man who was at all j 
conversant with Governor Brownlow’s career. ' 
Those who find fault with his style might as well I 
remember that the style of his assailant was any- j 
thing but polite. When a man is told he has taken j 
refuge from the penitentiary it implies that he has 
been guilty of felony, and a severe answer must 
come in course. Angry men do not pick out fine 
words, and Governor Brownlow has always been 
noted for his propensity to call a spade a spade. It 
was certainly a mistake to impute to him a want of j 
integrity, for men who differ widely from him in j 
opinion believe him to be strictly honest, and his j 
political foes at home have vindicated him in I 
that regard. There is no kinder man in the world 1 
to his friends than Governor Brownlow, aud, per¬ 
haps as a necessary offset to this trait, no more un¬ 
relenting enemy. Nevertheless, he is as easily con¬ 
ciliated by a kind and courteous word as heis aroused 
by an angry and improper one.”— Sunday Morning 
Chronicle, February 18, 1872. 

Mr. Beck admits that he was an overseer; 
but denies that he ever whipped any man’s 
slaves; though he thinks upon reflect ion that 
it might have been better, both for him and 
them, if he had done so sometimes. He does 
not give up the philosophy of the benefits of 
negro flogging on the moral nature, and we 
are therefore in darkness as to how the pro¬ 
cess would have “been better” for both par¬ 
ties. It is a great pity he did not embrace the 
opportunity to improve himself in any way, 
for he sorely needs it. 

I cannot regret a speech that has called 
forth such a gushing specimen of autobiogra¬ 
phy and maudlin sentiment as follows : 

“ My family ties bind me to the grand old State of 



Virginia. I love the people of the South; and*'! 
will stand by them as long as 1 have a voice to 
speak,” &c. 

Truly the State of Virginia should be over¬ 
whelmed with this honor, and the much-loved 
people of the South should appreciate this 
affectionate—bosh ! 

The New York Tribune correspondence 
gives the following graphic summary of the 
way he did it: 

‘‘He now got angry, and said, ‘Very well, I will 
sec to it that nothing is printed in the Globe after 
this that is not read.’ ‘So will I.’ shouted a dozen 
Democrats. Mr. Beck, who had been making a 
strong speech against the abominations ot recon¬ 
struction in Tennessee, now changed his tone, and 
gave the House all the personalities for which it had 
stomach. He detailed his personal history in full, 
even to trival details. His father had raised the 
best stock in New York. He had gone to Kentucky 
poor and friendless, and now represented the great¬ 
est district in the United States. He was held up 
as an example to the young men of his Stare. He 
had married a Virginia woman, and his children 
were the great-great grandchildren of the brother 
of George Washington. He had never been a hostler 
in a livery stable, or a slave-driver, and any man 
who said so was a liar—referring to Brownlow. Ho 
had never laid a lash on a slave’s back; no man had 
ever laid a lash on his back ; no man had struck him 
a blow; no man would strike him and live. Mr. 
Beck went on for twenty minutes with this sort of 
stuff, to the surprise of every one, for he has always 
ranked as the ablest and most sensible man among 
the southern Democrats." There is this to be said, 
however, in justification of the gross breach of 
good taste which he committed, that he spoke under 
excitement, and that, when excited, it is almost im¬ 
possible for a man of southern training to refrain 
from indulging in braggadocio.” 

So it appears that lie attempts to build up 
bis line of aristocratic succession through the 
maternal ancestor. That at least is sensible. 
I have no doubt the “Virginia woman” he 
married is worthy of all the good he can say 
of her. The fact, however, that she lias such 
a husband as Beck excites my pity. He does 
well to point his children lo their great-great¬ 
grandfather on the mother’s side. It will be 
a gleam of sunshine in the shadow of their 
father’s reputation, and perhaps the Kentucky 
Legislature will one day let them change their 
name to the maternal patronymic. They may, 
in fact, go still further back, and, like Mark 
Twain in Judea, weep tears over the tomb of 
Adam as a “ distant relation.” 

WILLIAM G. BROWNLOW. 


Printed at the Congressional Globe Office. 













































































































